Bondi Wasn’t the Only One: Trump Donated to Many Attorneys General Who Were Looking at His Business

‘When You Give, They Do Whatever the Hell You Want Them to Do,’ Trump Has Boasted

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and then-Texas Attorney General, now Governor Greg Abbott, both Republicans, are far from the only state AGs who received donations from Donald Trump despite their offices having business related to him before them. 

From 2001 to 2014 Donald Trump donated to a dozen attorneys general – or candidates running for that office – “while they weighed decisions affecting his business, a review of his political donations shows,” The Wall Street Journal reports. 

“In total, Mr. Trump has given about $140,000 to a dozen people who either were state attorneys general or running for the post from 2001 to 2014, according to donation records. Some of the recipients returned the contributions. Totals before 2001 weren’t available,” the Journal reports, but notes that going back as far as the 1980s Trump engaged in the practice.

Defending him to the Journal, Trump’s attorney Alan Garten concedes the manhattan real estate businessman and billionaire “has always said he’s given to politicians his entire career and he thinks the system is broken.”

“Thinking that the system is broken doesn’t preclude him from giving to politicians when they are knocking on his door 365 days of the year,” Garten, general counsel at the Trump Organization, added.

In other words, one might call that the “it’s morally wrong but not illegal so why not do it” defense, one that permeates through Trump’s campaign.

And Trump himself has defended the practice.

“As a businessman and a very substantial donor to very important people, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do,” the Journal reports Trump telling them in July 2015. “As a businessman, I need that.”

Some responses via Twitter: